Know About Google Algorithms And The Latest Google SEO Updates
We all have become quite familiar with SEO and why it’s important for every business. Almost all clients want to achieve faster results without realizing the technicalities and importance of Google SEO updates. In this scenario, the most crucial thing that everyone needs to understand is – How SEO works?
The internet is full of information and considering its amount, finding the most relevant result for a searcher seems nearly impossible in the given time. That’s where sorting helps in identifying the most relevant ones. The most widely used search engine – Google works on a ranking system. It sorts out countless webpages in the Search Index to find the most useful link and present it in front of the searcher in a single click. Before moving ahead, let’s understand what makes these ranking systems work so profoundly?
The ranking system is known as a complete series of Google Algorithms. These algorithms consider certain key factors to determine the most relevant search page for the searcher’s query that includes the meaning of the query, webpages relevance, content quality, webpages usability, and context and settings. A search engine delivers the best possible results instantly by using a combination of algorithms in which Google makes numerous SEO updates every year. The majority of Google SEO updates sometimes go unnoticed, however, when Google introduces major SEO updates, the Search Engine Result Pages face significant impact.
8 Major Google Algorithm Updates & Changes
We have compiled a complete list of Google algorithm updates along with the latest SEO updates that are going to be refreshing for many SEO experts and helpful for budding SEO professionals.
Introduced in 2011, Google SEO update Panda de-ranks the websites featuring low-quality content. The algorithm is designed to improve the quality of Google search by assigning a quality score to webpages. It de-ranks the webpages with low-quality content mainly the ones featuring plagiarised, user-generated spam, duplicates, or unnecessary keyword-stuffed content.
Initially, the effects of the Google algorithm update – Panda were mild. However, in 2016, the SEO update rolled out completely that made content the king of webpage optimization. The basic principle of Panda is to assign a quality score to each webpage to identify the high-quality website. The score is not assigned just once. It is significant to note that the score of the website gets updated every time the website changes or new content is added or removed.
To generate a high-quality score of your website, know the following steps of Panda:
Crawls the website to find all of the content residing on the website
Checks thin content i.e. few liners, meaningless text, and unnecessary links to products
Checks for duplicate content across pages
Checks the plagiarism of the content, thus, the content has to be unique and fresh
Checks for keyword usage and density to identify the content stuffed with irrelevant keywords
Check the user engagement by identifying the bounce rates of the pages
Identifies user-generated content, grammatical errors, intrusive ads
To fight webspams, Google SEO update – Penguin had a massive impact on many websites. It was rolled out in 2012 and now a part of the core algorithm of Google. The update eliminates webspam and aims to optimize search results for users. Prior to this SEO update, the volume of links play a major role in determining the score of the website. Thus, Penguin was needed to overcome the increasing practice of manipulation of search results and ranking arising from black hat link building tactics.
The Google algorithm update was further introduced to control the number of techniques exploiting the loopholes of the website to make it rank better and faster than organic search. According to Google’s estimates, more than 3 percent of search results were affected initially with the launch of Penguin. Later in 2013, Penguin 2.0 i.e. the fourth SEO update affected approximately 2.3 percent of search results.
After the launch of multiple versions of Penguin, the update works concurrently with the core update of the search engine. It instantly evaluates the website's links and the SEO expert can see the impact of its link in real-time. Furthermore, the SEO update fights with different forms of webspam including – unnatural links, artificial linking, and quick link growth.
Unlike the previous Google algorithm updates - Panda and Penguin, Hummingbird is a completely new Google SEO update that affects the way search engine showcases the results. Launched in September 2013, the algorithm focuses on offering user intended results. It pays attention to the searcher’s query rather than considering the individual keywords in the query. It takes into consideration the whole meaning, conversation, or sentence that the user types in the search bar and aims to showcase the user the closest result possible.
Google is attempting to make its search engine a better and most useful platform for the searchers. Through the Hummingbird SEO update, it makes the search more intuitive by eliminating the useless and irrelevant links appearing on the search pages. According to the data, the Google SEO update affected 90% of the search queries on the search engine. Though it is not a penalty-based algorithm update, it just changes the way Google reacts to a query.
Considering the function of the SEO update, Hummingbird emphasizes long-tail keywords i.e. phrases. The use of long-tail keywords has become an important consideration for SEO experts to make sure the content on their webpages performs better to boost the website’s ranking. Thus, it becomes important to change the keyword strategy by focusing on conversational queries to boost the ranking.
Mobilegeddon
The number of web searches happening on mobile devices is significantly increasing. Considering the growth in this trend, Google launched one of the most essential SEO updates known as Mobilegeddon. This update aims to de-rank the websites lacking in mobile version or poor mobile usability of the webpage/ website. Rolled out in 2015, the update boosts the website that works well on smartphones as well as other mobile devices.
Prior to the update, Google released a few bullets to inform the SEO experts about the way it is going to impact the websites:
Search ranking on mobile devices
Results in all languages across the globe
Applies to individual webpages of the websites
Technically, it was a big step towards the cultural shift to promote mobile-friendliness of the websites. Being a user-centric company, the search engine constantly emphasizes improving user-experience whether on PCs or mobile devices. Thus, this update aligns the Google search engine with the changing user behavior and trends in the market.
RankBraink
Rolled out in October 2015, RankBrain is a component of the Hummingbird Google SEO update. The advent and adoption of machine learning and artificial intelligence pushed Google towards coming up with this update. Since machine learning works with data inputs, the SEO update uses this technology to meet the most useful and nearest match of the search query.
As per Google, RankBrain is the third most significant factor in the ranking of websites. The update understands the meaning behind the searcher’s query and works responsibly to showcase customized Google search results. The intelligence aspect of RankBrain sets it apart from other SEO updates. It considers the larger context of the query including the synonyms, implied words, and personal search history to improve the search experience of the user.
Technically to make the RankBrain work properly, the search engine feeds the Google algorithm update a huge amount of data. RankBrain further analyses that data to determine the searcher’s intent and serve the most relevant results. These are based on a number of important factors such as the user’s search history, device, and location as well.
To make the website perform well, the SEO experts need to consider the following steps to make sure the webpages are up to the mark of RankBrain:
SEO is more than just keywords
Hyperlink cluster pages to pillar page to boost their organic ranking
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